Sunday, March 19, 2000

7:45am

By 7:45 am today, I am finished making five loaves of Banana Bread using my mother's recipe.  Of course, it never tastes as good as my mother's recipe did but, I've got five loaves made and baking anyway.  I'll give Brian two or three to take to his work and the rest will go to my work.  This not a recipe that I can eat, because of the shortening and sugar, and Brian, believe it or not, doesn't like banana bread so there's no sense in keeping any at home.

The Balance . . .

 . . . of my day will be spent going to Costco, Safeway and replanting the lettuce that Earl so graciously dug up last week.  I don't think Brian will be able to come with me this time-- he's "having to rebuild his system".  I don't know what that means but it doesn't sound good.  Brian's new "fort" (that I'll show you pictures of later), should keep the lettuce safe for quite some time, indeed.  I've also got the miniature rose bush to replant and the laundry is literally starting to stack up and, if I have time, I'd like to go on a bike ride.  I'd also like to get started on that essay that I'm writing . . . its for a competition and there is a cash prize involved.  I could get lucky-- ya never know!

So I'm off . . .

Gotta get started on my day . . . I'll try to take pictures of the "fort" later to show you and update you on the progress of my day.  Have a great one yourself!

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The itchiness of my hands is making me a little nuts this morning so, contrary to my usual way of dealing with it (scratching 'till my hands are bloodied stumps-- c'mon, you've seen my nails!), Brian suggested that I try a hit of Benadryl which, unfortunately, I can't yet tell is working; hopefully that'll improve as the morning progresses.

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Its later and thanks to Benadryl, I didn't get as much done as I wanted.  The rash was really bad today but, I don't think I'm going to continue to take it-- I need to stay conscious!  Anyway, I did get the rose bush replanted and the lettuce seeds in today.  Brian took a couple of pictures for me: above left is the fort-like cage that to keep the Earls out of my pots (at least until the seeds root well enough to withstand digging by little paws) and the picture on the right is my herb garden as started inside: upper left is parsley, upper right is purple basil, and both bottom pots are regular basil-- Brian makes a mean pesto sauce so we've gotta have a lot of basil here!!!

That's it for me for the night-- have a good one!

An Incredible Morning!

I have to admit, just like a kid the night before Christmas, I was awake two or three times during the night-- I was so excited to go out fishing today.  Usually, in the morning when our alarm goes off at 5:30am, I hit the snooze bar until at least 6:00am when I finally roll myself out of bed.  Not this morning, however-- I was out of bed on the first assault on my one working eardrum!!  In the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee and make Brian's sandwich, organize the sodas and back out to get dressed and go.  Brian did a quick check of email and then got dressed to go, essentially before I had a chance to nag at him about it.

In all of the time that we've been fishing at Lake Chabot, I don't think we've ever caught any fish before 9am but, because the banks fill up so quickly with fisherpeople, we need to get there early in order to find enough ground to set our chairs on and stake our rods.  There isn't much of a bank and a lot of it is very steeply angled so it is important to get there early.  When we arrive, there is a guy to our right about 30 feet away and a bunch of people on the dock to our left, also about 30 feet away but, sure enough, by 9am there are two more groups between us on both sides.

Unfortunately, they were the only ones catching anything-- Brian and I usually hae to suffer through two or three sessions of no hits and no catches before we start getting lucky and start catching anything-- beside a sunburn, that is, so for us, the season is young.  Brian's posted a couple of pictures on his website but regrettably, none with us holding up a trophy fish!

Boring?

So what do we do when we're not catching anything?  Well, Brian reads and today voraciously finished a book by Pournelle and Niven that he'd been reading called The Burning City.  I've been mulling over writing an essay of sorts and read over the material for that along with a new book that I've been threatening to read for some time by Fannie Flagg called Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.  But my favorite thing to do when fishing is to just stare at the water . . . watch the people around me . . . watch the ducks and geese fight over a potato chip . . . watch the hawks flying through the hills and, oh, yeah, my very favorite: stare at the water.  That is, bar-none, the coolest!  I could do it-- and have-- for hours.

Agenda for the evening . . .

I hate to say it but I've pretty much wasted the remainder of my day doing nothing but sleeping . . . I think I'm going to have to stay busy so that I stop scratching at the "sun rash" that I developed after sitting in the sun this morning.  Tomorrow has about as much for plans as tonight does except that I may add an extended bicycle ride into the equation.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

No, believe it or not, this is not one of those holidays that the religion I was raised in twisted into a holiday for themselves.  It just wasn't a holiday that was celebrated because it is perceived to be a catholic holiday and since I wasn't raised catholic . . . well, you get the idea.

As I got older, however, my mother explained something to me that seemed viable so I bought it: Green is for the Irish catholics but, for the Irish protestant, we were considered "Orange Irish".  If my Irish readers want to correct me on this, please do so-- I'm only going by what my mother said and, even though her father was from Ireland, she could've been wrong.

Also, don't get me wrong--  Orange is an great color for a pumpkin and a truly excellent color for a traffic cone-- I just don't want to be mistaken for either one!  So come today and every other St. Patty's Day, I do absolutely nothing about "dressing Irish" cuz it wouldn't be pretty, trust me!

Bicycle Ride!

I've just come back from a non-stop 2-miles +/- bicycle ride-- I should've stopped . . . I should've remembered to bring water with me!! ANYTHING!!!  I've now got a tickle in my throat that precludes me from breathing for more than ten seconds without coughing!!!  ARGH!!!!  I've been drinking water and had a Hall's mentholyptus disk, too-- both seem to be helping it but the tickle just won't go away!!!!

Other than that, however, the bicycle ride was wonderful-- I forget from year to year how much fun it is and, even with as nice as the weather in Northern California can be, I don't ride during the colder months so I forget how much fun it really is to ride.  I'm going to keep this up every day riding that much or more so I can get myself built up to ride over to Rancho San Antonio Park.  That would be a real treat-- I'd never be able to ride the "PG&E Trail" but, it would still be fun to ride what I can without killing myself!

Thanks to All of Those . . .

 . . . who have refrained from washing their cars in Northern California!!  It is with true and sincere gratitude that I tell you that we are going fishing tomorrow!!!!  FINALLY!!!! I thought I'd never get to fish this season!!!  After Saturday afternoon, you can all line up at Lozano's or wherever and get your cars washed and suds 'em up to your heart's content!  I did want you to know, however, that I do appreciate the fact that you've held off this long for little ol' me!

Another Week Done

I've closed two major deals in the past two days and a couple of more minor ones over the course of the week.  All-in-all, not a bad week but, I'm truly glad that it is done.  I like my job but, I feel myself starting to live for the weekends when there are so many things that I want to do.

Tonight?  Tonight!

Nope, it'll be like any other night-- a little tube and cross-stitch . . . you have a good one, too!

You gotta see this!!

In a kind of reminiscent walk down memory lane, Barbara Thompson wrote to tell me about her bicycle:

I read your post and had to respond. I have my
original and only bicycle I ever owned. It is a
Schwinn Co-Ed bought in 1963. Dad said he would
buy me one bicycle that I could grow into and I
better take care of it. It was a 26" which I
could almost reach the pedals at 9 years olds.
They put blocks on the pedals so I could reach.
About a month later I had knocked them off so
many times going around corners, we left them
off because I could reach the pedals by then.
It has all the original frame and seat. I think
I put new tires on it while I was in college. I
think I rode it once since we lived in this
house. I just keep it for sentimental purposes.
The Co-Ed was a two speed in the break gear.  A
soft breaking motion would change from a hard
gear to an easy up-hill gear. It has a million
miles on it. I lived on that darn bike until I
was old enough to drive. Then used it off and
on in college.

I just had to send you a picture to show you
what a "real old Schwinn" looks like. I used
to take the tires off mine too. Also, would
wax the frame and polish the handle bars.

Have fun on your bike ride.

Barbara F. Thompson
Research/Information Services
Winston-Salem, NC
email: barbara@ttgnet.com
http://www.ttgnet.com/bft/bft.html

My Bicycle Update

I'm finished!!!  I relubed the chain and gears tonight, changed the front tire and the brakes.  You know how when a bicycle is new it makes that "ticking" sound as you ride down the road?  My bicycle hasn't made that sound for a very long time-- it does now!!  It is sooo cool!  Brian didn't check it but I went for a ride and everything seems to work well . . . the brakes brake, the tires tirelessly turn and the chain ticks . . . what more could a girl ask for in this world?  Okay, yes, a Harley Davidson would be nice but Brian probably wouldn't let me drive it anyway!!

Earl Update

You would think that should say "Lettuce Update" or something of the like, eh?  Well, that isn't going to happen-- Earl got to my lettuce finally!  We've had it outside for three or four weeks and he left it along but, he not only dug his way through all three of the pots but ate the tops of the plants that had started, too.  Well, that's great-- now I've gotta start over!  Brian will be making me a lettuce cage of some sort this weekend.  We were hoping to not have to do it-- these chicken cage things are not the most attractive decoration on our porch bungta rt,ts bt intoaksu t, its the best thing to make sure that they have a chance to get to that point.

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On that note, its already 8:00pm that I'm posting this and, I've got the dishes to do on the commercials of "Whose Line is it Anyway?"-- one of my favorite shows-- so, I'll be signing off and talk with you again tomorrow night.  Later . . .

Happy Birthday, Alexandra!!

Brian's sister's oldest child, Miss Alexandra, turns FOUR YEARS OLD today!!  We sure hope she gets her gifts in time to open for her celebration and enjoys them (we're pretty sure that she will)!!  If you'll recall, my gentle readers, Alex likes to "slick" at icing on birthday cakes so I'll bet she'll be doing a lot of slicking at icing tonight!!  Enjoy it, Alex-- its YOUR birthday!!!!

End-o-quarter time . . .

Yes, it is that time again, isn't it?  While I wasn't at work at 5am this morning, I was in at 7am preparing for an 8am call.  I managed to not scare myself into thinking I was going to over-sleep so I was actually able to get a decent night's sleep-- this tactic is comparable to "kid-before-Christmas" attitude.  (Repeat after me: "I can't sleep-- I might oversleep!!"  "I can't sleep-- I might oversleep!!"  "I can't sleep-- I might oversleep!!")  And so it starts . . . (Repeat after me: "Spa day in April"  "Spa day in April")   Yes, I know-- I have very weird mantras, don't I?

Bicycle Maintenance Update

Well, I got a good start on the bicycle maintenance tonight.  My bicycle is a ten-speed and there's a few tricks involved to it that weren't involved on my Schwinn when I was a kid.  My Schwinn was not a "speed" bike-- it was a bicycle . . . the brakes "came on" by backing down on the pedals of the bicycle, not by squeezing a clamp.  I used to pop the tires off of my Schwinn for a good time when I was bored in Michigan as a child but this 10-speed stuff is something else!  Brian had to help me loosen the bolts but otherwise, I cleaned the chain (its going to dry before I re-lube it) and, so far, I've changed the tire, tube, liner and brakes on the rear tire-- the easy one (front tire) is the one that's left and I may do a thorough wash-down before I call it good.  I'm really quite pleased by myself even if I did get the rear tire on, straight and in the right position, totally by accident!  I dropped it, it got tangled in the chain but then it just popped into place.  (Yes, I will have Brian check it!!)

I will be finished tomorrow though, as hoped so that I can go for a ride on Saturday.  I may even bring myself a picnic lunch along in my basket!  (I've been wanting a basket so that I could go to the grocery store with my bike if I wanted so, I bought one!  $7 + Tax, so I think I deserve it!)  There are a couple of pictures forthcoming of my work so stay tuned . . .

This is why one should always make friends with one's nail technician-- it keeps them from killing you when you do something like this for "fun"!!
 

Agenda for the Evening?

Don't have a clue cuz I haven't checked the listings yet-- as of this past weekend, it was still pledge-break time on all three of the local PBS stations.  It may or may not be How To night but, either way, I've done enough "How To-ing" for myself tonight.  I'd be just as happy to sit and cross-stitch awhile-- I'm making good progress on the pattern that I'm working so I'll probably return to that for awhile tonight.

Attention Don Armstrong:

(Sorry, this'll just take a minute . . . )  I've been trying to get an email through to Don Armstrong of Australia since Saturday and keep getting mailer-daemons on his Yahoo address.  If anyone has another email address for him or, Don, if you're reading this, please send me another email address to use for you.  What's up with Yahoo in Australia?  This is how they prepare for the Olympics?

Vatican Emails

I've been having a good time with this emailing the Vatican-thing; this is the exchange that's happened so far:

From Me #1:

This morning in the news, there is an article
with the title "Pope in Historic Plea to Pardon
Church Sins".  Did that come from this office?

What office did it come from?  How can I ask
someone a question?

Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.

Could you send me back the article you mention
in order to see the origin?

Thanks,

V.I.S.

The story is located at:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000312/ts/
pope_forgiveness_4.html

I regret but the V.I.S. has not edited the news you mention.

Sincerely,

V.I.S.

That's nice to know-- I mean, that you didn't edit the piece.
However, that wasn't my question: how do I ask a question
of someone at the vatican regarding that news story?

Spring Bicycle Plans

Tonight, on my way home from work, I stock u and picked up replacement tires and tubes and brakes and chain cleaner for my bicycle.  Brian's bike is only a couple of years old and the chain needs to be cleaned (probably) but, my bike, now at least 5 years old, needs all major bits replaced.  The problem with that is that by the time you're finished buying them for the first time, i.e., the tools (levers), chain de-chainer (I can't remember what its called, okay?), Simple Green, wire brush, etc., you've paid the same price as you would for a new bike.  Next time, I will just buy a new bike rather than fix this one again-- I didn't like the color of it very much to begin with so it wouldn't be a loss as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, the plan right now is for me to work on the bike as long as I can tomorrow night and Thursday night (I hope it doesn't require it but, if it does . . . ) and Friday night so that my bike is ready to ride on Saturday.  In case we can't go fishing, I'm at least going to go for a bike ride this weekend!  (Brian will probably be working on his project yet so we may not be able to fish but I certainly can ride my bike!)

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Nothing much on the agenda for the night . . . I made tomato/basil spaghetti with red leaf lettuce and radicchio salad so dinner is finished and my cross-stitch is screaming my name so I'll be a-goin' . . .

Another week is upon us . . .

Today is the only day that Brian is going to the office-- he's taking the week "off" to see where his new project will take him.  This will make us a little closer in banked time off so that I don't feel like I'm the only one working around here-- ;>)  Just joking, honey, there's a wink!

Anyway, tonight is my Weight Watchers meeting and then the rest of the week, I'm fairly open.  Nothing committed that I'm aware of so nothing lost-- yet.  Stuff at the office should be picking up pace a bit as we near the end of the quarter.  And, yes, we are scheduling our spa day for April already . . .  Ahh, the struggles and trials . . .

Picking a fight . . .

 . . . I'm not likely to win but it will make me feel better not to have let it slide.  In the internet news from Reuters yesterday, there was a headline "Pope in Historic Plea to Pardon Church Sins".  I thought I'd read this little gem.  In this article, the Pope asks the forgiveness of the Catholic church for wrongs that its done to Jews, women, heretics, and native peoples (of what country?)  The article specifically states: "The Pope has said often that Catholics should see the start of the millennium as an ideal opportunity to seek forgiveness for past sins, including those of the Church as a community."  I guess allowing priests and other church officials to rape, torture, abuse, manipulate, and emotionally blackmail children doesn't count.  Silly me!!  I realize that they have indeed done all of the things that they've admitted and asked forgiveness of in the past; however, I do not believe that they have gone far enough with the current admissions list.  There is a laundry list a mile long that they've left out of the sins in this article-- someday, maybe, they'll do a complete cycle of the dirt!

Anyway, so I've decided to pick this fight by means of locating the website and trying to find out who to write to when asking a question about that specific article to the pope (no, I know the pope won't actually answer my email but one of his minions will see it).  So far, the only reaction I've gotten from the Vatican Information Service is to ask for a copy of the article to see if what I read is accurate.  I haven't even gotten around to asking them the question yet!  I think that should be interesting, eh?  Do you suppose I'll get an answer?  No, I didn't think so either but, if even one person reminds them that they're not "getting away with it", maybe someday, they'll admit ALL of the wrong-doings that the Catholic church has done over the years!!

(In my best Judy Tenuta voice-- It could happen!)

Census

Our census forms arrived today in the mail . . . I had heard a vicious rumor about being able to do it online this year but, perhaps that hasn't panned out?  In re-checking my "delete mail" folder, I found the article referencing online census forms . . . if you don't get sent the 53-page form (53 PAGE FORM?????), you can use the online form located at www.census.gov.

So, the taxpayers paid for the printing of the form for the general households because ? ? ?  Oh, yeah, its the US Government, silly me-- I forgot!

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Perhaps more later . . . if nothing else, a WW update even if I am nervous about a continued downward trend!  I've been good on my diet so its just a matter of chemistry cooperating at this point!

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We are not pleased . . .

I did not lose weight this week-- in fact, I gained from the 4.2 that I lost last week but, the counselors gave me two reasons for it: 1) I didn't, on a couple of occasions, eat all of the food that I was required to eat (on too many days, I ate less than my full amount of points, and one day, I was even short by about 10 points) and 2) because I'm not doing enough for exercise.  Apparently, when dieting, being hungry is not a good thing.  Who knew?  Anyway, I'm not discouraged but, I'm even more determined-- mostly cuz I'm ticked!

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I'm also done-up for the night-- want to work on some of the projects that I have going . . . more tomorrow.

Current "Musings"

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